The Arizona sentinel., 1887-02-05

cover the entire Asiatic frontier from
 the Sea of Okhotsk in Eastern Siberia
 to the river Don and the Caucasus.
 They are first mentioned in the Rus
 sian chronicles of 1444 as living around
 that part of the Dneiper where the city
 of Kiev now stands. They had begun
 to assemble there as early as the tenth
 century, escaping tyranny of all kinds,
 and they chose the Dneiper territory as
 refuge because they could easily de- fend themselves there among the i'm
 passable marshes and numerous isl
 ands. These refugees from oppression
 increased very fast, and, although they
 numbered many different classes and
 races of peOple-victims of religious
 persecution, fugitives from the cruelty
 of lords and masters, deserters, crimi-
 nals and outlaws-they soon united into a more or less homogeneous mass,
 essentially Russian in character, for
 the larger part of them were Rus
 sians, but utterly opposed in politi-
 cal creed to the existing govern ment. They formed, as it were, re- public within a monarchy, state with in a state, always calling themselves Russians, although maintaining their independence of Russian rule. As they grew to be formidable in numbers they spread rapidly over the country, and at last established themselves as a kind of military republic in Southern Russia, and declared themselves defenders against savage tribes and Turks. Their usefulness to Russia as defenders of the frontier was by no means imaginary. The cities of Southern Russia were con- tinually threatened by the incursions of Asiatic barbarians, and frequently sought the aid of the Cossacks to pro tect them against these attacks. Great numbers of young men from thes cities, irresistably attracted by the wild, free life of the borders, joined the body of Cossacks, which was then, as it is now, a close corporation.
 Complaints of their lawlessness were showered upon the Car Alexis, and in 1855 he persuaded some of them to come to Moscow, and then sent them against Poland and Riga-the first service ever performed by Cossacks in the Russian army. Nearly a century later various advanced posts were established by the government in the country occupied by these Yak Cossacks. They, consider ing this to be a deliberate infringement on their rights, stirred up powerful rebellion, and for about thirty years successfully opposed the Russian arms, pillaging the country of the Volga, and even threatening Moscow. This final struggle for Cossack independence ended in the year of the declaration of American independence. The Russians effectually suppressed the rebel lion, captured and executed the leader, Pugatcheff, and changed the name of the river and province from Yaik to Ural, the latter punishment, simple as it may seem, having a certain refinement of cruelty in the appreciation of the semi Oriental Cossacks. Since this famous revolt ended, the Cossacks have been peaceful subjects of the Czar, always reserving certain traditional rights and privileges for themselves, which make them still in a large degree independent of Rus sian rule. It has never been possible to prevent their foraging across the frontier, any more than on our own borders have we hitherto found it in our power to put an end to the prOmis- cuous acts of barbarity which have always postponed perfect peace in the United States to that time when the extermination of the Indians shall have removed the temptations which iron tiersmen are unable to withstand
 In the course of the centuries of com parative freedom which the Cossacks have enjoyed they have not preserved the purity of their race, although they are much more Russian than any thing else. It has been a common custom for the young men stationed in remote posts to marry the Asiatic girls whom they have captured as prisoners of war or bartered for in the Oriental manner. This practice of promiscuous marriage has, of course, been no inconsiderable element in the preservation of their practical isolation from the rest of Rus sia. Then, too, besides the mixture of blood, no trifiing proportion of them has been admitted to the body from the Asiatic tribes, chiefly from the Circas- sians, who have, as a condition of their admission, adopted the GUS toms of the Cossacks, and have sworn allegiance to the Czar. Possess ing, then, characteristics of both Slav and Asiatic, the great body of Cossacks stands, as it were, on neutral ground between European and Asiatic civiliza- ton. Their allegiance to the Russian government does not place them in the position of the ordinary Russian citi- zen. Instead of taxes and contribu- tions, they pay the government in mill tary service, giving a certain amount of men, enlisted for a certain length of service, in payment for the lands on which they squat along the rivers. Their chief officers are appointed by the gov ernment, and their Ataman, or General of all the Cossacks, is always a Grand Duke. They have settled along the rivers both because, in most cases, these mark the frontier lines, and o1co hacauca tha host 1an6c 1io olopo